Shots, eggs, embryos and a big dose of hope

Chad and David put the process in motion with a donor and surrogate, but much could still go wrong

Chad Craig hugs egg donor Jessica after 26 eggs were harvested from her. Chad and David Craig, in the background, had been waiting nearly two years for this moment. It was the first significant medical step in their unconventional quest to become fathers. (Tyrone Turner / For the Times)

WHITNEY arrived at the Craigs' house in northwest Washington about 11 a.m., her 2-year-old daughter in tow. It was a dreary morning, with a white fog enveloping the Washington Monument. She had just given blood at Muasher's clinic and the nurse had told her to call at 2 p.m. for the pregnancy test results.

Chad arrived home from work with 20 minutes to spare. "I'm so stressed out that I'm beyond stressed out," he announced.

The two-week wait had been tough on him. Unable to focus at work, he kept searching the Web for pictures of embryonic development so he could imagine what their child might look like on any given day.

Chad slid into a kitchen chair next to David, who placed the phone on speaker and called Muasher's office. The room was silent as the call routed from one assistant to the next and then to the doctor.

"Hello?" His thickly accented monotone was instantly recognizable.

"Hey, Dr. Muasher," they replied in unison.

"Hi, how are you?"

"Fine, how are you?" David replied.

"Good, who do we have there?"

Chad listed those in the room.

"How's everybody doing?"

"We're doing fine," they all answered. It was starting to seem like too much small talk.

"Good," he said, and paused. "I'm really sorry, you know, I don't have good news."

Chad's head dropped.

"The test was negative, unfortunately. I'm really very, very sorry. I mean, all of us are sorry. This is one of those situations where everything went fine, we expected it to work, and it just didn't work."

"So what do we do next?" David asked.

Muasher explained they could try a second transfer with frozen embryos in as little as three weeks. Whitney would have to stop her medications, wait for her period and then start a new regimen.